Ambush Kiss
by ScribeofHeroes
Summary: Some centuries after the fall of Doriath, Thranduil and his bride, Lathwinn The Great, go spider hunting near Nan Dungortheb.


**I did not create nor own Middle-earth/Arda, Doriath, Nan Dungortheb, Morgoth, Ungoliant, Thranduil, or Oropher. I did create Lathwinn and her brothers. Of course, Legolas must have had a mother, and Thranduil, therefore, must have had a wife, but Lathwinn is my version of her.**

 **This story is written in the first perspective of Thranduil and is for entertainment purposes only. So please read and be entertained. :)**

During the first years of our marriage, Lathwinn and I hunted the dark creatures of Nan Dungortheb to keep them from spreading into emptied Doriath. She shared my desire to keep the remains of Melian's kingdom clean. My bride also had a need to hunt Morgoth's forces herself, born out of her days in their hands. She could not endure the thought of such things happening to another. I could not endure the thought of them ever again happening to her.

Lathwinn's brothers often accompanied us, as did my father. We hunted together in pairs, threes, or fours. The night my wife invented a new way of setting an ambush, she and I were hunting together, alone. Our kin were stalking quarry of their own some leagues away.

My wife and I had been tracking a spider as adept at alluding us as we were at alluding her. The monster's body was no bigger than a troll's head. Such smaller spawn of Ungoliant are the most difficult to follow. The creature could slip through spaces we had to crawl through. We slid along after the monster through the trunks of hollow trees and tangles of thorns that tried to draw blood from us, and always there were the webs.

The quarry left several in our way. We avoided entangling ourselves in them by moving forward with bare, outstretched hand and foot. Should a fingertip or toe feel the chill of the glue that coats their threads, we could pull back before brushing the strands themselves. Yet, somehow, our quarry was alert to our movements.

Perhaps, the spider sensed vibrations we made in the air through a particularly keen set of hairs they use for that purpose. Perhaps, the monster had attached threads to twigs we brushed. However it did so, the spider always drew away as we advanced. The foul beast also circled back, making us her prey. Now and then a hiss of laughter echoed through the air to Lathwinn and myself.

Finally, my Hawk stopped, folded her arms over her chest, and leaned back against the trunk of the tree we stood in. I stopped beside her. My beloved's face had turned pink. We had been chasing this quarry all night, it was almost dawn, and "The Great" was getting angry.

"She is nearly as good as me."

"I would not say that, my love."

" _I_ already have!"

I had known and been married to My Hawk long enough to remain silent at this. I let my senses tell me of our surroundings and kept watch while she fumed. Lathwinn also kept watch in her own way. The Great was ever aware of The Song even while she poured rage into it. The warrior of Ossiriand held her throwing knife in one hand while the other gripped her own bicep. Her eyes had narrowed into slits.

"If the monster is this good now, she will soon become a true threat to even the greatest warrior. And she will gorge herself on all."

My lips continued to press together in silence, but for a different reason. I was picturing it, this spider first killing its way through its own kind here, then growing bold enough to leave its shadowed birthplace. I saw the dark creature eating its way through common wild things. Then I beheld her making a nest near a road between kingdoms, feasting upon traders and warriors, elves and men, the grown and younglings.

My fingers wrapped around the hilt of my own knife. Twin swords were not practical in this terrain, but a blade of Doriath, however short, was powerful in the deepest shade. I also would not be satisfied until my beloved's blade or mine had finished this monster. Lathwinn glared still more darkly into the shadows.

"We need to attract it to us."

My eyebrows rose as I looked to her. Ambush was a Silvan's favorite way to hunt. However, it worked best when they hunted a foul beast already hunting a fair one. We were the hunted this time.

"In what way will we do this?"

Lathwinn huffed. A strand of hair that had fallen before her face flew up briefly.

"We cannot pretend to be hurt. She will not fall for that. Nor can we afford to actually wound ourselves."

I stiffened beside her.

"No, I think not."

I had done such things before, when I was alone and a foe kept out of reach while waiting for me to tire. The scent of blood pulled out the craftiest of dark beasts like warm fur does a flea. In their madness, they sometimes make mistakes. But I would not take that risk with Lathwinn at my side. Nor would I allow her to do such things to herself. My Hawk's fingertips were now rubbing the hilt of her knife as if it were a tight muscle.

"We need to convince her we do not know when she is near, that we are weakened or distracted."

I gazed upon my wife's form. She was so tense her body was almost trembling. Heat poured out from her skin into the cool air. The crossed arms and gripping fingers were so slender, yet so strong. In spite of their strength, I knew their hands were also soft. I smiled at the thought.

"I am growing distracted."

Lathwinn's form straightened. Her eyes widened and skin glowed. Brown eyes glinted like rain-moistened earth.

"That is the answer."

My mouth opened to request clarity, but the words were blocked. One moment I was admiring my beloved's beauty, the next instant I could not breathe. I was not certain I wanted to.

My new wife was pressed up against me. I tried to draw away, but my back was somehow pressed up against the tree trunk. So, my hands pulled her away instead. The effort was agony.

"Lathwinn, this is hardly the place . . ."

She took a moment to draw in air and grin at me. Her gaze froze my lips. Brown eyes laughed up at me in triumph.

"This is exactly the place."

Then my new wife was kissing me again. I should have turned my face, but I did not. I should have argued more, but no words came. My thoughts seemed to swirl and dissipate like honey in hot liquid. This was sweeter than such a drink.

I was quite enjoying myself, when my wife broke away from our embrace. As she spun away, her arm flashed out. Something sped through the darkness. A screech broke the air.

A weigh about as bulky as a troll's head, but lighter, fell through the branches beyond us. It landed with a crunch of dry vines and brambles. I blinked.

"That was . . . all . . . for . . . the spider?"

My beloved turned back to me with a smirk and shrug.

"Of course not. We wanted to kiss and the spider thought us distracted enough to attack. I enjoyed it. Did you not?"

 _Enjoyed it?_ My brows rose as my arms fell. Far more intoxicating than a spider's bite is a lover's kiss. And I have a very intoxicating lover. I had surrendered to her nearly as fast as I would have gone limp at our quarry's sting. All had apparently gone as planned, but had also left me feeling a bit . . . bereft.

Before I had formed a response, my wife slipped away from me and down the tree. I began to follow. Out of habit, my hand reached for the blade in my belt. My fingers grasped air. I froze.

"Lathwinn, was that _my_ throwing knife?"

She glanced back up at me with too-wide, innocent eyes.

"I sheathed mine to kiss you. So, yours was more within my reach."

Then she turned back and dropped down to another tree branch. From there, she continued to twist her way down through the limbs of the tree. I shook my head and followed. By the time I was on the ground, she had removed my blade from between the rows of the spider's eyes and was already sprinting towards the west.

I followed. She soon stopped, and I reached her side. The stench of the place surrounded us, as did its chill, encouraging me to lean in closer to my beloved. Her warmth and scent poured over me. I turned my face towards her hair, drew in a deep breath, and leaned closer still. My eyes closed. The memory of the taste of her kiss and touch of her skin tingled on my tongue and fingertips.

She turned to face me and slapped something into my reaching hand, my knife. I blinked and barely escaped my tangled thoughts enough to register she was speaking. I froze as her hiss tickled my ear.

"When it takes the warg, we will move in."

Lathwinn drew away. I blinked at her. She squinted back at me. Then she tilted her head towards the west.

"There is another spider hunting a warg a half-league's distance. If we hurry, we can take them both before the sun rises. You should feel that already!"

I turned my senses in that direction. They told me my wife was correct, and I nodded. Lathwinn's mouth twisted into a frown. She crossed her arms again.

"If you let it distract you this much, I am not going to kiss you while we hunt again."

My form slumped, but I sighed and nodded.

"That would be . . . wise."

Her brown eyes studied me. From their softening I knew she heard my still pounding heart, felt the flush of heat from my veins, and heard the longing in my note of the song. I looked away while heat flushed my face. Though is did not escape her throat, a giggle drifted out from Lathwinn's note in The Song. Then she calmed.

"We should come at this one from two different directions."

I nodded again and began to move away. She went in the opposite direction. We came upon the quarry as it wrapped up the warg. This spider was half the size of an entire troll.

Lathwinn shot an arrow into one of its eyes. As it screamed and backed away from this blow, I leapt upon its back and drove my blade deep into the back of the monster's head. The beast collapsed. We dropped together to the forest floor. Once it crashed there, I rolled away from the spider's twitching.

I raised my head to see the still living, but paralyzed warg encased in web. An arrow pierced its form. The foul note of its life went silent.

I turned to see Lathwinn looking down at me. Torment twisted her expression. She knew I hated killing prey that did not fight back, so did she.

I wanted to pull her into my arms and kiss her again, this time in comfort, but then a familiar voice sounded above us.

"Were you kissing our sister in the middle of a hunt?"

I spun around. My second eldest brother-in-law was staring at me. He was wearing the grin more dangerous than his scowl. I opened my mouth, but Lathwinn dropped to my side and spoke first.

"That was entirely my idea, torin nin."

Her eldest brother stepped up to flank his younger. He crossed his arms.

"He should not have let you make yourself so vulnerable."

Lathwinn straightened to her full height and raised her chin.

"That was the whole point. We would have chased that spider an age otherwise."

"Still, I think my son knows better than that."

I turned to see my father arrive with Lathwinn's youngest brother. The latter was staring daggers at me. I shrugged.

"We are not planning on doing it again."

Her eldest brother pierced me with his gaze.

"I certainly hope not."

I opened my mouth to reply, but my wife spoke first again.

"Well . . ."

I turned. Lathwinn was giving me a look that heated my blood. She then added a smirk and wink.

"Not during a hunt again, at least."

She called them "ambush kisses" ever after. I would be walking somewhere, and then be encircled by her arms and cornered, unable, or at least unwilling, to free myself. I learned to not so much expect as enjoy these interruptions.

However, I did so only in times of peace. Lathwinn never used that particular ploy to lure quarry to us again. I was disappointed every hunt after that, but it was probably for the best. There is nothing so distracting, as an "ambush kiss."

 **Thanks for reading. :) Reviews are much appreciated and often responded to.**

 **God Bless**

 **ScribeofHeroes**


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